Dining and wining in Mendoza

We’re just off to enjoy yet another food experience in Mendoza only if the rental car arrives on time. It’s half an hour late yet our reservation is in half an hour! Hmmm ... I hope we’ll make it! Our first night here we ate at a small restaurant and had by far the best dinner in my life!! I’m hoping tonight will be similar!

Tomorrow we leave on a 3 day road trip to visit the Valley of the Moon in San Juan province and Aconcagua National Park (the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere). On Thursday night we’ll be back on the overnight bus from Mendoza to Salta in northwest Argentina.

Chocolate y Helado Fantastico

The best ice-cream, possibly in South America, perhaps the world, is in El Bolson. We always had an excuse to buy more!! For breakfast, lunch, 4 o’clock snack and dinner, we would be in line deliberating over which flavour to try next. The almond and coconut ice-creams were undisputedly the best and they work exceptionally well with chocolate andino (walnuts and chocolate) or one of the many fruit flavours. And the best part is that we don’t feel at all guilty for indulging in so much. This is our deserved reward after 10 days of hiking in Southern Patagonia followed by a torturously long and dusty bus journey that lasted 32 hours.

Southern Patagonia is a harshly beautiful place. After a week in Buenos Aires we were more than ready to escape the bustling city for the tranquillity of the mountains. However, though desolate, Southern Patagonia was far from tranquil. Parque National Torres del Paine in Chile resembled a natural Disney World, complete with visitors and amenities. We completed the circuit, a 8 day 80km hike around the famous rock towers. The first half of the trek takes you deep into the narrow valleys under the sheer granite peaks, however the trails were busy and the campgrounds crowded and dirty. It amazed us that fellow trekkers would leave their trash on the trail and that the National Park turned a blind eye to this problem. The second half of the trek was more physically challenging (20 miles on day 5) and consequently quieter and cleaner. The scenery was stunning: enormous blue glaciers tumbling from the large ice cap, jagged mountains, wide valleys, forests of gnarled beech trees, frothy rivers and alpine lakes. However, by day 8 we were dreaming of the lamb asado and generous glasses of red wine we were going to order for dinner in Puerto Natales and the hopefully hot shower back at Isabel’s home. We also visited Los Glaciars National Park just across the border in Argentina and though our two long day hikes took us deep into the mountains, the two famous peaks, Monte Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, remained shrouded in thick cloud.

32 hours later with swollen ankles (from hiking or bus seats), after a long bus journey on a dusty dirt road through the dry Patagonian steppe, we arrived in hippy El Bolson, home of the amazing ice-cream. We stopped for a day, long enough to experience the 'hippieness' of the town. As we staggered towards our campsite at 8 in the morning, we encountered a 'hippy' using a front garden as a public latrine, with beautiful Rose bushes to provide modesty (barely!). Minutes later, after pitching the tent, our neighbour burst from his tent very unwell. Possible food poisoning or too much locally brewed beer?

Now we’re settled in Bariloche, in the Argentine Lake District. We’ve rented a beautiful apartment with views over the lake towards the Andes. We’re enjoying the quiet of the apartment and Jon loves having a kitchen all to himself. For the next 3 days we’ll be touring the lakes by bike. The weather is beautiful and a welcome relief from windy Patagonia. Our next step on the South America tour is Mendoza.

Los Glaciars

We’ve hiked 30 miles in the last two days here in Los Glaciars National Park but unfortunately the two star peaks, Monte Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre, have remained shrouded in thick cloud. Luckily we caught a glimpse of the dramatic peaks on the bus into the park.

Tonight begins our epic bus journey up Ruta 40 to El Bolson, a hippy town in the Lake District region. 32 hours of bumpy roads to be able to eat organic vegetables!!

Once we find a reliable non-satellite internet connection we’ll write more of our hiking adventures in Southern Patagonia.

Puerto Natales II

We´re back in Puerto Natales, after 8 amazing and challenging days trekking in Torres del Paine NP. We’ll tell more later, but we’re ready to fall into bed now! Tomorrow we travel back to El Calafate and then the following day on to El Chalten where there will be no internet access. We plan to complete a couple of day hikes from El Chalten in Los Glaciars NP and then it’s a 32 hour bus journey to El Bolson and Bariloche.

Puerto Natales

We arrived in rainy Puerto Natales in Chile today, stocked up on provisions and are more or less ready for the big hike. Tomorrow we leave for Torres del Paine National Park, just a few hours north of here. We’ll be hiking for the next 9 days if the weather is good and my feet stay happy. We’ll be in touch on our return to let you know that we made it safely around the circuit.

El Calafate

We arrived in El Calafate today, a tiny town brimming with tourists. Despite the expensive outdoor gear shops lining the purpose built strip, the town is situated in an amazing location. We had dinner in our hostel admiring the beautiful view of the snowy Andes rising behind turquoise Lago Argentino. Tomorrow we visit the famous Perito Moreno glacier and Friday we move on to either El Chalten or Puerto Natales.

Internet is incredibly slow here (satellite connections) but we’ll keep you updated as best we can.

Bife y Vino

I think we’ve walked down every street in the centre of Buenos Aires. It’s a loud, chaotic and bustling city. Today we visited the large antiques market in San Telmo, an old neighbourhood with beautiful crumbling houses. Now it’s almost time for our afternoon siesta, a habit we’ve rapidly adopted. Then around 10 we’ll eat, probably more delicious steak and wine. At midnight or so it will be time to dance and admire the fabulous tangeuros and tangistas. I’m using the one computer in our hostel which is usually occupied by a member from Team Brazil, a group of 13 Brazilian chicas who are here to study Medicine. Sometimes it feels like we’re back at high school in the midst of a group of giggling, preening, screaming girls! But they provide much entertainment to us and our other fellow hostel members, Jota Pe (John Paul) from Chile, Walter from Holland and Pieter from Belgium.

On Wednesday we fly to El Calafate and hopefully we’ll find two seats on a bus to El Chalten and Los Glaciars National Park on the Friday.

Everyone is willing to speak to us in Spanish, slowly, and help us with words we’re struggling to find. We even had a conversation about US politics with Rosa, the woman who cleans the hostel, however understanding that she wanted to change the sheets on our bed was very difficult! The portenos are very friendly and kind.